Department of Biology , University of North Carolina at Greensboro , P.O. Box 26170 , Greensboro, NC 27402 , USA.
AoB Plants. 2011;2011:plr005. doi: 10.1093/aobpla/plr005. Epub 2011 Jan 24.
Advances in digital imaging have made possible the creation of completely visual keys. By a visual key we mean a key based primarily on images, and that contains a minimal amount of text. Characters in visual keys are visually, not verbally defined. In this paper we create the first primarily visual key to a group of taxa, in this case the Fagaceae of the southeastern USA. We also modify our recently published set of best practices for image use in illustrated keys to make them applicable to visual keys.
Photographs of the Fagaceae were obtained from internet and herbarium databases or were taken specifically for this project. The images were printed and then sorted into hierarchical groups. These hierarchical groups of images were used to create the 'couplets' in the key. A reciprocal process of key creation and testing was used to produce the final keys.
Four keys were created, one for each of the parts-leaves, buds, fruits and bark. Species description pages consisting of multiple images were also created for each of the species in the key. Creation and testing of the key resulted in a modified list of best practices for image use visual keys.
The inclusion of images into paper and electronic keys has greatly increased their ease of use. However, virtually all of these keys are still based upon verbally defined, atomistic characters. The creation of primarily visual keys allows us to overcome the well-known limitations of linguistic-based characters and create keys that are much easier to use, especially for botanical novices.
数字成像技术的进步使得创建完全基于图像的可视关键成为可能。通过可视关键，我们指的是主要基于图像且包含最少文本的关键。可视关键中的特征是通过视觉而非语言定义的。在本文中，我们创建了第一个基于图像的分类群关键，即美国东南部的壳斗科（Fagaceae）。我们还修改了我们最近发表的关于图像在插图关键中使用的最佳实践，以使其适用于可视关键。
从互联网和标本数据库中获取壳斗科的照片，或专门为此项目拍摄。将图像打印出来，然后按层次分组。这些分层的图像组用于创建关键中的“对偶”。通过创建和测试关键的反向过程来生成最终的关键。
创建了四个关键，分别用于叶子、芽、果实和树皮等部位。还为关键中的每个物种创建了包含多个图像的物种描述页面。关键的创建和测试导致了修改后的图像使用最佳实践列表，适用于可视关键。
将图像纳入纸质和电子关键大大提高了它们的易用性。然而，几乎所有这些关键仍然基于语言定义的原子特征。主要基于图像的关键的创建使我们能够克服基于语言的字符的众所周知的局限性，并创建更易于使用的关键，特别是对于植物学新手。
